About This Project

Tumblr App Details:

Description: Tumblr is sometimes touted as a micro-blogging platform, but as it says on its own website, “Tumblr lets you effortlessly share anything,” including text, photos, videos, links, music, with complete customization capability. As of March 1, 2015, Tumblr hosts over 225.1 million blogs.

What parents need to know:

The Wild West of Social Media – the app store rating says it all. The ability to post anything means that people post anything. And, you don’t need an account to access everything that is posted. Just download the app or go to the Tumblr homepage and search for keywords.

Porn Abounds – the hashtag feature just creates a repository of specific themes for people to troll, i.e., #girls, #kikme, #snapchatnudes, etc. The latest stats claim that 22% of the referral traffic to Tumblr is porn or adult related. Estimates are that more than 30,000 Tumblr domains (pages) contain adult content.

Privacy – the settings on Tumblr can be tricky. Primary Tumblr accounts are all public. Outsiders can easily comment on posts and send direct messages to users. An account cannot be made private unless a user creates a second blog on Tumblr under a second name, which of course, most people don’t do.

Some Blockage – the Tumblr app and website can be effectively blocked withOpenDNSon both Apple and Android devices, using the “blogs” category.

Bottom Line:

Due to its description as a “micro-blogging” site, it’s easy to think, “What could be wrong with that?” But, inappropriate content is everywhere and users will easily stumble into something inappropriate. Parents should take extreme caution when deciding if their young kids should use this app based on the risks noted.